Bombs away

Four homers brought some life to the Crosstown Classic South Friday, though the game will be remembered more for the dugout-clubhouse verbal altercation Lou Piniella and Milton Fradley got into in the 6th inning that resulted in Bradley being told to "go home," according to Lou.

Don't expect Bradley to stay home though, unless he's planning on retiring. The incident happened after Bradley threw his helmet after flying out and allegedly busted another water cooler (I think the Cubs players need to start bring their own water bottles to the games with their names on them, like you see in Little League).

I'm guessing this was a tension release on the part of both Bradley, who is still slumping, and Pinella, who basically was called a wimpy wuss in the newspaper yesterday. We'll see, but Piniella claimed Bradley would be in the line-up today.

The incident overshadowed the Cubs' perilous 5-4 win, which included all the Cubs's scoring on 2 homers, a Jake Fox 2-run shot and a Geovany Soto 3-run dinger. Fox homered in his second consecutive game and is making a brilliant case for more playing time when interleague play ends and the line-up loses a hitter. Could Bradley be the one to pay the price? Soto was revealed as a one-time pot smoker (What else is there to do during the World Baseball Classic?), and seems to be a new man at the plate with the burden of secrecy off his back. He has homered twice in three games (He only got 1 AB in the homerless game), and 4 times in his last 8 games.

Of course, it would not be a Cubs game if Carlos Marmol didn't try to give it away. He walked 3 men in the 8th inning, and gave up a single (though it should have been caught by the napping Alfonso Soriano) and a 2-run double by Jim Thome. Sean Marshall relieved him with the bases loaded to face pinch-hitter A.J. Pierzynski, and when Marmol arrived in the dugout, he threw his glove hard against the wall, but was not reprimanded by Lou as far as the TV cameras could tell. Marshall threw one pitch to A.J., who grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Perhaps feeling left out of the post-game gossip, Sox manager Ozzie Guillen called out A.J. for having a "bad at-bat" swinging at the first pitch. There certainly is a case to be made that A.J. occasionally attempts to do too much when he's looking for a big hit, though you shouldn't send him up there expecting patience. He has only 12 walks this year, and only 180 in his entire career (that's about 1.5 seasons' worth of walks for Thome, to put it in perspective).

Thome was the big contributor for the Sox, with 3 RBIs, including a homer off Cubs starter Randy Wells, who now has recorded a win in his last 2 starts after much earlier frustration. Jermaine Dye also had a solo shot, but the Sox otherwise showed only a glimmer of the energy that produced 16 runs in the previous 2 games against teh Dodgers.

Meanwhile, Jose Contreras actually pitched pretty well for a guy who gave up 5 runs (4 ER). He struck out 8 and only walked 1 in 7.1 IP. The homer by Geo in the 7th was the obvious big mistake, though it came after Paul Konerko botched a difficult-but-playable grounder that could have nabbed at least 1 out. Contreras also appeared to have a back problem, though he didn't come out of the game, and not much was made of it later.

Wells swell, but still winless

"I think I need to throw more strikes. The balls are killing me."--Carlos Marmol, in today's Chicago Tribune.

Carlos Marmol's balls may be killing him, but Randy Wells is the one in real pain.

Things were going all too well for Wells, even after he lost his no-hit bid in the 7th inning and gave up a solo homer to start the 8th. The Cubs were still ahead 5-1, and Wells was only around the 80-pitch mark. It was his game to win, it seemed.

Then, however, a Cubbie moment: Derrek Lee blew an easy catch at first base, allowing a runner aboard on an error. True Cubs fans had to know this uncharacteristic sort of blunder means things are about to go very, very wrong. The next thing to go wrong was ou Piniella yanking Wells after just 83 pitches right after the error.

This, of course, seems like a safe thing to do with a four-run lead in the 8th inning, but I'm still baffled, if only because Wells had made only one real mistake the whole game with the solo homer. The hit he gave up in the 7th was to Chipper Jones, one of the best in the business. He did not record an out after facing two batters in the 8th, but that wasn't his fault. Besides, Wells has done a great job in at least two recent starts pitching himself out of big jams with men on base, most recently against the Dodgers last week. And, he was really on last night. At least give him one more batter after Lee's botched play, to give him the chance to show whether or not he's had enough.

The only thing worse than yanking Wells too early is putting Carlos Marmol in with a man already on base. See, when, given his own inning to start, the wild, jittery Marmol likes to load the bases before settling down and working out it. If he starts with a man on base--well, you do the math. Marmol was a mess, walking in a run, hitting a guy--the usual. He left with the Cubs up 5-3 and less margin for error by cloer Kevin Gregg the following inning.

The next Cubbie moment was a dropped third strike. With one out in the bottom of the 9th and Gregg looking aggressive and effective, Garrett Anderson swung and missed a ball in the dirt. Geovany Soto missed it, too, and Anderson was on. One out later, Gregg faced hometown Atlanta boy Jeff Francouer, the Braves guy I would least like to see in that situation. I would have even rather seen Chipper, who is less likely to hurt you with a homerun. The hometown boy made good, leaving it 5-5 for three innings, during which the Cubs mostly waited for the Braves to figure out how to win.

In the end, it was Chipper driving a man home from second with one out and first base open. I believe the manager's handbook says to walk the career .311 hitter in that situation. That would have brought up another good hitter, catcher Brian McCann, but it also would have set up an easy inning-ended double play on almost any ground ball. Lou would have none of it, and that was that.

This game did have other bright spots besides Wells; swell and ultimately wasted effort. Alfonso Soriano ledd off the game with a homerun, and is now in second place for career homers leading off a game. D-Lee hit a rare homer, and had an all-around good day except for the untimely error.

Just another game at the beginning of June, I know and nothing to fret too much about. Just another lost opportunity, and hopefully, the Cubs won't finish one lost opportunity out of the postseason.

Dodger bait

The Cubs couldn't quite write the storybook comeback against the L.A. Dodgers Thursday night. It would have been a nice way to sooth a few of the bad memories of the NLDS fiasco last October--if not erase them. But, despite a good set-up for a would-be bottom 9th rally--the bases loaded and 1 out with a minor league underdog (Bobby Scales) and a minor league superstar (Jake Fox) due up--the Cubs' effort fizzled. Final score: 2-1

Even the bottom 8th had been set up well for a rally, with Scales hitting a pinch-hit homer, Fox smacking a pinch single and Kosuke Fukudome drawing a pinch walk before any outs were recorded. But, slumping Alfonso Soriano whiffed and Ryan Theriot hit into a double play.

The Cubs continue to have trouble scoring runs despite great pitching efforts, this one a gutsy performance by Randy Wells, who seems to have a veterans knack for minimizing damage, but has been victimized in every one of his outings by like of run support from his own squad.

Things don't get easier today with Chad Billingsley facing dugout-jumper Ted Lilly. The Dodgers have been scoring a lot of runs this year, even without Manny Ramirez, and it's because they do a lot of little things right while hitting smart and running the bases pretty aggressively. The Cubs could take a few lessons from the Dodgers before they leave town, hopefully with a three-game losing streak.

The year of the injury

What's a good way to ruin the positive vibes brought on by winning 6 of 7? Losing 3-2 to Milwaukee after being up 2-0 is a nice start, but watching your main RBI man dislocate his shoulder and head to the deal for 4-6 weeks finishes the job.

Aramis Ramirez was injured for the second time already in this young season, and this time it was a doozy: He dislocated his shoulder diving for a line drive and proceeded to roll around on the ground in tremendous pain.

One of the keys to success is avpiding big injuries to key players, and while Alfonso Soriano was injured during parts of the last few seasons, the Cubs seemed to have bats to spare. Not so this year, and in addition to A-Ram's injury, obviously the worst this season, we still have Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto battling chronic pain, Carlos Zambrano out briefly with a pulled hammy, Carlos Marmol have recovered from a sprained knee that looked bad when it happened and Kevin Gregg possibly having some sort of pccasional stiffness.

The Cubs have let two division titles go by without winning a play-off game, and perhaps the nature of the sport is catching up with them a little. But, it's still early--we're going to say that until at least the All-Star break.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee's win tonight gave them sole possesion of second place in back of the Cardinals, and the Brewers have been looking very strong lately, so the Cubs need to hang around regardless of who gets hurt. Tonight, Randy Wells, just up from the minors, kept them in the game and left with a 2-0 lead after only 84 pitches. Wells pitched well in spring training, and the way the bullpen has been going, blowing the game for him tonight, maybe Wells has a chance of sticking around for some relief duty after Zambrano gets healthy (Jeff Samardzija was already shipped out for being ineffective in his brief call-up, so the pen spot is there for the taking.)

Another bit of news: The Joey Gathright Era has ended. He was traded to favored trade partner Baltimore for versatile, speedy Ryan Freel. With A-Ram out, the timing could be good for Freel to get some starts, since he has played plenty of third base in the past. Freel, like Gathright, has had strong moments in a career that has never quite fulfilled its promise. He can still steal a base, but he's older than Gathright, and, uh-oh, kind of injury prone (He already missed time this year after getting hit in the head with a pick-off throw.) Oh well, if he does any better than Gathright's 3-14, he'll be worth the paperwork.